Marc Dalessio

Here a few of the sketches from Big Sur this week. Local painter Mark Farina showed me Garrapata Beach where I ended up painting a number of pieces (Garrapata means ‘tick’ in Spanish which is rather ironic since I spend most of my summers trying to avoid Lyme disease on Shelter Island).

Garrapata Cliffs. Oil on linen. 14 x 10 in.

Morning, Garrapata. Oil on linen, 10 x 14 in.

Big Sur has huge views. To get a decent composition you often need to capture about a 90 degree viewing angle, which is impossible to paint on a small panel using sight-size, even with one’s nose pressed up against it. Most sketches I do on small panels occupy about 30 to 50 degrees of my field of view (normal human filed of view is 160 to 200 degrees), and sight-size works perfectly in those instances.

Garrapata Surf. Oil on linen, 8 x 12 in.

To sight-size a 90 degree field of view would require about a 6 foot canvas to work on at a comfortable distance which, in high winds coming off the Pacific, would lead to a whole ‘nother set of logistical problems.

The following two sketches of Pfeiffer Beach, for example, completely fail to capture the grandeur of the scenery.

Pfeiffer Beach #1. Oil on linen, 10 x 14 in.

Pfeiffer Beach #2. Oil on linen, 8 x 12 in.

That last one especially would have been the guest of honor at the after-painting turps party, if it wasn’t for plan B: I’ve been doing detailed drawings at all these spots to figure out compositions and hopefully, between that, the color sketches, and reference photos, I’ll be able to make something of them in the studio.

In the meantime, I’m back to focusing on smaller views.

Monastery Beach. Oil on linen, 10 x 14 in.

Point Lobos Sketch. Oil on linen, 10 x 14 in.

I’m using very the very nice (and expensive) Classens-mounted-on-dibond panels from New Traditions, and a mix of M Graham, Old Holland, and Williamsburg colors. I find that some colors are better than others across brands.

Miss Gina. 14 x 11 in, oil on panel.

These are some of the sketches from my week in North Carolina. One of the more picturesque spots I’ve been to recently and some of the nicest people on the planet. I had great weather and was very fortunate to have an excellent guide of the area with the local talent, Jimmy Craig Womble. We also had two great plein air painters from Tennessee Kevin Menck (who has one of the more entertaining blogs out there) and Jason Saunders paint with us for the first few days.

Atlantic, NC. 8 x 12 in, oil on panel.

Beaufort Sunset. 8 x 12 in, oil on panel.

Elise 9. 6 x 8 in, oil on panel.

Red Neck Yacht Club (I'm not being derogatory, that's the name of the boat). 6 x 8 in, oil on panel.

We were talking one evening about great places to paint, and I mentioned that in Morocco the locals will bring you mint tea whenever they see you painting. At the above spot in Atlantic, the locals gave Kevin Menck a bushel of oysters when they saw him painting their boats.

Boat Lifts, Marshallberg. 6 x 8 in, oil on panel.

Shrimper, Radio Island. 11 x 14 in, oil on panel.

I was hosted wonderfully by Lee Dellinger and her husband Charles Jones and the paintings will be on exhibit (as soon as I can get frames sent over) in their galleries, Carteret Contemporary Art and Vision Gallery.

Joey's Boats. 8 x 12 in, oil on panel.

The World Traveler. 8 x 12 in, oil on panel.

The Two Galleries also have a blog with some action shots of the plein air group.

(Update: I was listening to OCMS while painting for much of the trip, so I thought I’d throw in a plug for them).

I’ll be having another exhibition for charity next week at the Osteria di Santo Spirito. The paintings are all sketches from this winter painted in the Oltrarno of Florence and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Amici di Santo Spirito association. The opening reception will be on Thursday, February 25th from 6 to 9 pm. You can see some of the work here.

I recently got a new DSLR camera capable of filming in 1080/24p full-HD (a Panasonic Lumix GH1) for some video projects I want to do. Having never filmed anything before (and I’ve only owned a regular camera for a couple of years), I’ve been using the forums over at DVXuser and youtube tutorials to learn a bit about shooting and editing the footage after.

Here is a road trip made last week with Leo Mancini-Hresko and Joe Altwer to find where Corot painted his ‘Bridge at Narni‘ in southern Umbria.

My hope is to start using video to do tutorials, so stay tuned.

Here, quickly, are a few of the sketches from my trip to lake Como this week. We stayed above Varenna at the beautiful Castle di Vezio (if anyone is looking for an exceedingly picturesque agritursimo around the lake).

View of Bellagio. Oil on panel, 20 x 30 cm.

Monte di Tremezzo. Oil on panel, 25 x 35 cm.

Ben Fenske and I had a painting competition for the view above. We bet our cars and I thrashed him. Too bad I wouldn’t know what to do with a purple Opel station wagon. (To be fair, the last time we had a paint-off he won by a mile).

The Ferry Landing at Varenna. Oil on panel, 20 x 30 cm.

Varenna from the Port. Oil on canvas, 18 x 25 cm.

Laguna Cliffs. 10 x 12 in., oil on panel.

I’ve been in Los Angeles teaching a small plein air workshop. Here are a few of the small sketches from the trip. Most are the paintings I do while demonstrating what to do so the artwork did not receive my full concentration. The good news is that I am finally getting better at talking while I paint after all these years.

Hyperion Bridge. 8 x 8 in., oil on panel.

Pines at Griffith Park. 8 x 10 in., oil on panel.

Fountain at Griffith Park. 6 x 8 in., oil on panel.

Eucalyptus. 11 x 14 in., oil on panel.

Palisades Cliffs. 11 x 14 in., oil on panel.

Still have to get the bugs off the canvas on that last one.

I remember the reason I wanted to become a landscape painter when I was young was the desire to paint the beauty of California. Its been a wonderful experience to be back painting plein air here after all these years.

There was also a small portrait workshop during the week.

Picture of the portrait demonstration on the first day.

The Trophy stand at Marcialla.

This post is a week late, but once again the painters from La Torricella swept the Marcialla painting competition last Sunday. I took first place (finally!), Kelly Askey took second, and Tim McGuire took third. For the few of you out there still unfamiliar with the annual painting competition held in the village of Marcialla, it is a charming event open to all (for a nominal 8 euro fee) held every year in July in a small hilltop town just outside Tavarnelle val di Pesa (40 minutes south of Florence).

My set-up at the Torricella.

Me with the Mayor of Barberino Val d'Elsa.

Actually, a number of small towns do these plein air competitions throughout Italy every summer, though they never have any advertising whatsoever. A few are scams where they keep all the paintings, or charge large entrance fees, but most are like the Marcialla arte, with an “everyone wins” attitude and lots of charm. The prizes are plastic trophies with wine and pasta donated from the local shops though the big winners every year are the those who get the “people’s vote” and walk away with the 15 liter bottle of a local farmer’s wine.

Victor with his trophy and winning work.

For anyone painting in the countryside in Italy in the summers, I would highly recommend you look into the local arts competition.

Using the sight-size technique for landscape painting.

There is a lot going on right now in my life and haven’t been posting much. This is just a quick post to help better explain to my weekend landscape students the principle behind using the sight-size method for plein air sketching. In the photo above you can see how the camera was held in a position where the subject is the exact same size in nature as the painting on the panel. When using sight-size in the studio, the painter moves back to view the subject and the painting together from a distance. In the case of sketching the large view of a landscape onto a small panel with the sight-size method, the trick is to make sure your head is always in the right position where the subject ‘fits’ onto the panel. I personally believe many painters do this instinctively without realizing it.

The sight-size method is incredibly useful for landscape painting as it allows the painter to focus on the colors, values and edges, and the shapes almost seem to take care of themselves. For atelier-trained painters especially, who have spent years painting with the sight-size method already, it seems a waste not to continue using it outdoors.

Painting at the Badia a Passignano.

Above is a panoramic photo of Wendy, Takuma and I painting at the Badia a Passignano this weekend.

Below are a few sketches from May. Always such a wonderful month to paint outside. The first is just a view I saw walking to the studio one day, the bright blue shadow in the muddy water struck me. The next two are from a series I’ve been doing in the Corsini Gardens here in Florence (I did a similar series in October a couple of years back, it can be fun revisiting the same scene in a completely different season). The last is from our rained-out trip to the beach this weekend.

I’m working on a couple of longer technical posts which I hope to get up soon.

Lungarno Serristori from the Bridge. Oil on board, 35 x 25 cm.

Corsini Garden sketch. Oil on board, 25 x 35 cm.

Corsini Garden sketch. Oil on board, 25 x 35 cm

Castiglione della Pescaia. Oil on board, 25 x 35 cm.